Four changes that worked for the Seahawks defense vs Arizona. Now, can they sustain it?

What in the name of Cortez Kennedy happened to the Seahawks defense, almost overnight?

So ransacked current players such as safety Ryan Neal were acknowledging they were letting down the legacy of Seattle’s previous championship defenses, the Seahawks suddenly became dominant against Arizona. The unit that had allowed 84 points and 946 yards the previous two weeks, the last-ranked defense in the NFL entering Sunday, held Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ offense to three points in a 19-9 win.

Asked what he saw in his defense against Arizona that give him optimism the Seahawks (3-3) can sustain that performance Sunday at the Los Angeles Chargers (4-2) and beyond, Pete Carroll said: “Everything.

“Really,” Seattle’s coach said Monday, “everything.”

Jordyn Brooks sounded almost relieved after he (a game-high 11 tackles) and his defense throttled the Cardinals.

“It just felt like us, honestly. Felt like that’s what we should have been doing,” the inside linebacker and defensive signal caller said.

“I’m proud of the way our defense played today. I think it’s a great momentum shift for us. Great building block to keep going, keep progressing through the season.”

So what changed?

Carroll didn’t want to detail the adjustments made last week from allowing Detroit 45 points and New Orleans 39 the previous two games.

Brooks said the biggest changes were in mentality. As in, enough was enough.

“Yeah, we made some adjustments,” Brooks said. “But I think the biggest thing we did is we just kind of all owned up. ...Guys took it personally (for the Arizona game). “Especially the defensive line.

“You see why they ate the way they did (with six sacks of Murray).

“We challenged ourselves. There was a mutual understanding that, man, we’ve got to get our stuff together.”

Yet there was more to it than just getting mad.

Here are some specifics to what Carroll, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and the Seahawks changed to give them hope they can have a more balanced team and win more consistently, the way Carroll wants to play: led by their defense:

1. Moved their defensive ends further outside

Quick, and without looking it up: Which Seahawks carries the team’s highest salary-cap charge this season?

It’s formerly undrafted defensive tackle Poona Ford, at $10,075,000, now that Russell Wilson is gone.

Ford was one of many defenders who were almost invisible the first five games. He was playing as a three-technique defensive end, opposite the inside shoulder of the offensive tackle, as an end in Carroll’s and Hurtt’s switch from Seattle’s long-time 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme this year.

That’s what the Cardinals saw all season on Seahawks film: Seattle’s Ford and Shelby Harris as ends lined up on the inside shoulder of tackles/outside shoulder of guards. Run fits were awful. Gaps weren’t manned. And when they were, Seattle’s linemen and linebackers were getting blocked out of them. That and horrid tackling were why the Seahawks were last in the NFL in run defense entering the Arizona game.

On early run downs against the Cardinals, Ford and Harris plus rotational tackle Myles Adams sometimes changed to being five-technique ends, on the outside shoulder of or head up on tackles. They “stemmed,” moved laterally from inside shoulder to outside shoulder of the tackle just before the snap. Adams was doing that on the game’s first drive, once the Cardinals got into the red zone.

The wider looks on early downs got the ends into the off-tackle gap more easily for running plays. They also cleared more pronounced gaps for Brooks to fill from inside linebacker. Two of Brooks’ first three tackles Sunday were inside on plays through the guard tackle gap inside Ford and Harris and outside fill-in nose tackle Bryan Mone.

Voila! The team that was allowing more than 170 yards rushing entering Sunday allowed Cardinals running backs 44 yards on 18 carries. And they did it was the line’s key, nose tackle and co-captain Al Woods, out injured.

“It’s a big step forward,” Ford said. “We took some things that played to our strengths that we have in the defensive-line room.

“It showed.”

Harris had one of his better games since arriving in Seattle from Denver in the trade of Wilson in March.

Ford had his most productive game of the season — and perhaps of his career, his coach said.

“He took advantage of the plan. Some things were adjusted, he took advantage of it, and really was active,” Carroll said. “He had a really good game. This was his best game of the season, for sure — and one of his better games ever.”

The Seahawks also went to just two defensive linemen, four linebackers and five defensive backs, including rookie nickel cornerback Coby Bryant. The Seahawks used that scheme to stop Arizona’s the fourth and 2 from the Seattle 27 with 9 minutes left in the third quarter. That preserved the Seahawks’ 9-3 lead. The Seahawks also used the two down linemen to begin a fourth-quarter drive with the Cardinals backed up inside their own 10.

The downside to the run defense was letting the elusive Murray get past them on quarterback draws inside, plus on read options, keepers and scrambles outside. Murray had 100 yards on 10 carries.

But there aren’t many quarterbacks Seattle will face this season that run like Murray. So this change to wider end play may continue, particularly if Woods can return from his sore knee to play against the Chargers this weekend.

“He wants to practice on Wednesday. He feels pretty good about (playing in Los Angeles),” Carroll said. “He needed the break.”

2. Lessened the tasks for the defensive line and front

The linemen and linebackers said the coaches turned them loose. They allowed them to be more aggressive, thinking and reading less, just attacking more across the line of scrimmage.

It wasn’t so much as reading and filling gaps. It was, GO!

The result was the Seahawks taking the play to the offense, rather than reacting — and usually late — as before Sunday.

“It started up front, guys got off of the ball really well,” Carroll said.

“That was part of what we did (attacking more rather than reading). That was part of the big adjustment that we thought, to make sure that they can utilize their strengths. Really, after assessing it, I think our guys are better in that mode.”

Asked if that means the Seahawks will stay that way now, Carroll joked.

“Oh no. We are going to go back to screwing it up,” he said.

It also helped Arizona was missing its top three running backs, and that coach Kliff Kingsbury often played into Seattle’s strengths of its new plans. He had Murray stand deep in a collapsing pockets on three key fourth downs the Seahawks stopped, rather than having Murray run directly at them.

3. Got Cody Barton off the field

It’s cold to state, but true: The defense got better as Barton played less in it.

Barton had played 94%, 96% and 100% of the defense’s snaps in the first three games. He played 77% two games ago in New Orleans, when the Saints had Tysom Hill and Alvin Kamara each run for 100 yards and Seattle lost 39-32.

Offenses were running at Barton, past him, and targeting him for big plays in the passing game.

Against Arizona, Barton played a season-low 28 snaps, 39% of downs. He played more on special teams than he did on defense.

Less of Barton meant more of Bryant. The nickel back played 75% of defensive snaps, up from 48% in New Orleans and 3% in Seattle’s opening win over Denver last month.

That worked. Bryant forced a fumble by Murray fellow Seahawks rookie defensive back Tariq Woolen recovered in the red zone in the third quarter. That was a key play in Sunday’s game; Murray had the Cardinals driving with Seattle leading 12-3.

The Elias Sports Bureau says Bryant is the first NFL player with four forced fumbles in his first six career games since the stat began getting tracked. That was in 2000.

So more of Bryant appears to be a good idea. That apparently will come at the expense of Barton’s playing time, though Carroll wouldn’t declare that Monday.

The chatty coach’s answer when asked about Barton was his shortest answer of his upbeat press conference.

“It was just how the game plan came to us,” Carroll said.

4. They challenged themselves

Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt years ago earned the players respect as the team’s direct, tell-it-like-it-is, yet nurturing line coach. Last week he challenged his linemen to do finally their jobs. Or else.

The result: Three of the six sacks of Murray were by defensive linemen, including the first of the season for Ford and Harris.

“It was fun, man,” Ford said. “That’s what the goal was, everyone get a sack.”

The tackles and ends also combined for 20 tackles. They had made 57 tackles total in the first five games.

“You know, he used to be the D-line coach. He takes a lot of pride in our group,” Ford said of Hurtt. “He expects us to play at a high level every Sunday. You know, we really weren’t getting it done.

“So we came out (Sunday) in the right mindset.”

Again, Carroll wouldn’t get into specifics. But it’s clear being more aggressive and reading/thinking less was much of what the Seahawks changed.

“We finally just made a declaration into a particular direction that everybody took to,” the coach said, “and they wanted it to work out, too. They wanted to play the way played (against the Cardinals), and they did it. And so, that’s a big accomplishment for us.

“This was a big step and I’m hoping that we will continue. It’s just one game. The whole world didn’t change for us, but it put us in the right direction.”